Christie's Challenge: A Third of Iowa Republicans Dislike Him

byMark Murray

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie addresses the Faith and Freedom Coalition's 'Road to Majority' Policy Conference at the Omni Shoreham hotel June 20, 2014 in Washington, DC. Led by the Christian political activist Ralph Reed, the coalition heard from conservative politicians who are courting religious conservatives as they eye a run for the White House. Getty Images

As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie heads to Iowa Thursday, prompting another round of talk about his presidential ambitions, he faces a 2016 obstacle maybe as daunting as the “Bridge-gate” scandal rocking his administration: A sizable number of Republican voters there dislike him.

A third of Republicans in Iowa (33 percent) and New Hampshire (31 percent) view the GOP governor negatively, according to new NBC News/Marist polls of those two states.

Conservative complaints about Christie aren’t new, and they pre-date the Bridge-gate scandal.

“Chris Christie promised to change New Jersey’s liberal Supreme Court. Five openings later, no change,” argues an advertisement running in Iowa by the group Judicial Crisis Network. “Instead a liberal Democrat for chief justice.”

Conservatives also criticized Christie’s embrace of President Barack Obama – right before the 2012 presidential election – after the damage from Hurricane Sandy.